


Harry Potter and the Quest for Fulfilment

by unknowableroom_archivist



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Drama, Novel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-04-11
Updated: 2006-04-11
Packaged: 2019-01-19 22:23:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,585
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12419493
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unknowableroom_archivist/pseuds/unknowableroom_archivist
Summary: Harry's sixth year at Hogwarts begins and with it come new feelings, new people and many trials along the way!





	1. Chapter one

**Author's Note:**

> Note from ChristyCorr, the archivist: this story was originally archived at [Unknowable Room](http://fanlore.org/wiki/Unknowable_Room), a Harry Potter archive active from 2005-2016. To preserve the archive, I began manually importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project after May 2017. I e-mailed all creators about the move and posted announcements, but may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this creator, please contact me using the e-mail address on [Unknowable Room collection profile](http://www.archiveofourown.org/collections/unknowableroom).

Prologue.

In the darkened room, the three people landed with a bump.

‘Bloody hell,’ said one gruffly, as if he hadn’t spoken in a long time.  The three helped eachother stand up and then they tried to find their way around the room.  The man who had spoken found a door and they made their way through.  

‘Can you remember how to apparate?’ the man asked the other two and they both nodded, seemingly unable to speak.  With a loud crack, the three people apparated out of the Department of Mysteries and landed in a spot that made their blood run cold.

~*~

Chapter one.

Miles away, in Surrey, a young man woke up from a dream feeling very confused at what he had seen.  Harry Potter swung his legs over the side of his matchbox-like bed and went over to the window.  Feeling weak from a lack of food, he swayed slightly on his feet but he forced himself over to lean on the windowsill.  Due to the severe heat of the summer, Harry had left his window open through the night, that and he wanted Hedwig, his owl, to be able to come and go as she pleased.  

As he walked, Harry caught a glance of himself in the mirror.  He was incredibly skinny for his height, which had increased over the last few weeks and his skin was pale, which caused his shock of messy jet-black hair to stand out even more than normal.  He thought that his normally bright green eyes were particularly dull at the moment under his round glasses.  

He looked out the window and breathed in the warm air.  Even in the middle of the night it was impossibly warm.  He sighed deeply as he thought about Sirius, his godfather who was tragically murdered only a couple of weeks ago.  During his first few days back at his Aunt and Uncle’s house, Harry had spent his time moping about his godfather’s death.  He convinced himself it was his entire fault but he managed to make himself realise that it was Voldemort, the darkest and most evil wizard alive, who was at fault.  This only served to make Harry even more determined to defeat his nemesis.  Harry had spent his life suffering because of Voldemort.  His parents had been murdered when he was just a year old and in the last five years, Voldemort had made several attempts on Harry’s life both directly and indirectly.  

The night Sirius died, Harry was told of a Prophecy that was made before he was born.  It said that Harry was the only wizard who could defeat Voldemort.  He was still troubled by Dumbledore’s failure to tell Harry about the Prophecy among other things.  At first, Harry was fuming with anger but after thinking about it more, he realised that he couldn’t dwell on things anymore.  He was still angry with Dumbledore for making him return to Privet Drive every year and he was also angry with the old Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for not allowing his friends to write him proper letters.  He would receive at least two letters every day from Hermione, Ron, Ginny, Neville or Luna as well as letters from various members of the Order of the Phoenix.  Tonks was the main person he got letters from but there were others.  

He had now been at the Dursleys’ for over three weeks and he was starting to get restless.  He wished that Dumbledore would allow him to leave the wretched house for good, if not then at least for the rest of the summer holidays.  He would soon be receiving his exam results and he wanted to be with his friends for that.  He began thinking about his childhood with the Dursleys.  He had never been welcome there and in fact he would go as far as saying that he was hated within the walls of number four, Privet Drive.  He remembered being hit by his Uncle Vernon, he remembered being thrown into the cupboard under the stairs and he also thought about the time his uncle had “accidentally” pushed Harry down the stairs.  Harry had been hovering at the time and he ended up with a broken rib and severely sprained wrist.  

No, Harry could never look back on his childhood fondly.  He couldn’t remember any of his time with his parents and after they were killed he was brought to the Dursleys.  So far, his only happy memories were of his time away from his relatives.  He struggled to call them family; he thought of the Weasley family as his true family.  Mrs Weasley had welcomed him into her home time and again as if he were one of her own, Mr Weasley loved to talk about Muggle things with him, Bill and Charlie were older than he was and he had yet to get to know them well but what he did know, he liked.  They were obviously very protective of their younger siblings and were well respected because of it.  Percy was, in Harry’s opinion, an insufferable git but he admired his persistence.  Fred and George, the twins, were the pranksters in the family.  They had recently opened a joke shop in Diagon Alley, which Mrs Weasley was none too happy about until she found out that it was Harry who funded it.  Ron had been Harry’s first friend after they met on the Hogwarts Express when they were eleven and had been more or less inseparable ever since.  Ginny was the youngest and had been the first girl to be born in the Weasley family in generations.  

Harry had been thinking about Ginny a lot lately.  He found that he could deal with all the bad things in his life better when he was thinking about her but he always scolded himself because she was his best friend’s little sister, despite only being a year younger than they were.  

He eventually forced himself to stop thinking about Ginny again and he climbed back into bed, his dream about the three faceless people climbing out of the veil in the Department of Mysteries at the Ministry of Magic forgotten. 


	2. chapter two

Chapter two.

Harry awoke to severe yelling coming from downstairs.  He could clearly hear Uncle Vernon yelling at the top of his voice at someone.  It was when he heard the person that his obese uncle was yelling at that Harry leapt out of bed and practically leapt downstairs.

‘YOU HIT THE BOY!’ Dumbledore roared.

‘YOU HAVE NO PROOF,’ Vernon replied almost as loudly.  Harry blanched at the sound of Dumbledore shouting.  He was normally calm, even when angry but now he was letting every guard down.  When he reached the living room, Harry saw Tonks, -Remus Lupin and Mad-Eye Moody standing near the door, looking petrified.  Harry wasn’t sure why but he guessed that they had never seen Dumbledore like this before.

‘YOU PROMISED THAT WHEN YOU TOOK HIM IN YOU WOULD TAKE CARE OF HIM, NOT BEAT HIM, NOT MENTALLY AND PHYSICALLY ABUSE HIM,’ Dumbledore roared once more, not noticing Harry’s appearance. 

‘HE WAS INSUFFERABLE!’ Uncle Vernon countered.

‘This boy here is one of the kindest, most loving people you could hope to meet,’ Lupin snarled.  He had obviously noticed Harry standing halfway through the door.  

‘He is nothing more than a spoilt brat who deserves to be turned out on the streets,’ Vernon hissed.  Harry glanced around the room and saw Aunt Petunia cowering in the corner not saying anything.  

‘Harry, you will be leaving here for good today.  I do not want you returning to these people,’ Dumbledore said, having calmed down once more.  Harry was so shocked by the display of his headmaster that he simply nodded and ran upstairs to pack his trunk.  He didn’t know how Dumbledore knew that Harry had been beaten as a child but he found that he didn’t care because he was finally getting to leave the Dursleys for good.  After putting on some clothes, he began throwing everything into his trunk.  Tonks and Lupin came into the room and with a simple wave of her wand, Tonks had packed Harry’s trunk for him.  He smiled at her gratefully, not able to speak just yet.  

‘How are you holding up Harry?’ Lupin asked.

‘I’m ok I suppose but this all came as a bit of a shock.  How did he find out and why now?’ asked Harry.  Lupin and Tonks glanced at eachother uneasily and Tonks said,

‘I think Dumbledore wants to talk to you himself Harry.  He’ll probably do that as soon as you get settled in.’

‘Where are we going?  Not Grimmauld Place please?’ he pleaded.

Lupin shook his head, ‘No don’t worry, that place is only used for Order meetings now, no one lives there.  I certainly couldn’t.  We’re going to Hogwarts today.  The Weasleys are staying there for now because the Burrow isn’t safe with most of them in the Order now so we thought it best for them to stay in the castle.  No doubt you’ll be bored of it by the time classes start again but I’m sure you’ll be able to find someone, I mean something, to occupy your time,’ he corrected himself after a nudge in the ribs from Tonks.  Harry blushed slightly at the thought of them knowing about his feelings for Ginny, how could they know?

With everything packed, Harry said a quick goodbye to his Aunt.  She was after all the last surviving person on his mother’s side of the family.  She surprised everyone present by jumping up and giving Harry a tight hug.  Vernon looked disgusted with his wife and he proceeded to storm out of the house and drive away in his car.  Harry took hold of the Portkey he was handed and the last he ever saw of Privet Drive was his aunt standing in the living room with a small tear running down her cheek.  

Harry landed roughly in Dumbledore’s office.  The old man asked the others to take Harry’s trunk, broom and Hedwig’s cage back to Gryffindor tower while he spoke to Harry in private.  Harry sat down in the conjured chair in front of the headmaster’s desk and waited for him to speak.  

‘Harry, before I explain to you how I came across the information I got so angry about, let me apologise for my outburst.  I have never been so angry in my life before.  You see last night, while sleeping, I began to have the most peculiar feelings.  I knew I couldn’t possibly be dreaming; having taken a Dreamless Sleep Potion in the evening so I knew this was some sort of Legilimency.  Before I proceed, let me ask were you awake at any point during last night thinking about you childhood?  In particular of instances of your Uncle hurting you.’  Harry nodded and Dumbledore continued.

‘Very well.  I think I can guess what happened now.  Harry, I think that you have become a highly skilled Legilimens over the past few months and you subconsciously sent me all that you were feeling last night.  This is very good as you should also have a very strong Occlumency shield because of this.’  Dumbledore paused to let Harry take this in.

‘So do you think that Voldemort passed it on when he possessed me at the Ministry?’ Harry asked.

‘No, Legilimency cannot be transferred.  You must have some degree of natural talent for it.  I sleep with my strongest Occlumency shield up so you must be highly skilled to place that in my mind without thinking.  I can tell you that Severus has trouble slipping past my shield even while I am sleeping.  I think that you may be coming into the power that the Prophecy talks about.’

‘How is being a Legilimens going to help me defeat Voldemort?’ Harry asked.

‘I am not saying that this power alone will allow you to defeat Tom but I do believe that some of what you were thinking about last night will be the trigger for your powers to grow in the duration of the next few months,’ said Dumbledore with his eyes twinkling.

‘What do you- oh bloody hell,’ said Harry as he realised that he was thinking about Ginny in the same train of thought as his Uncle.

‘Language Harry!’ Dumbledore exclaimed, pretending to be offended.

‘Professor, I must apologise for smashing up your office at the end of last term.  I was out of order and-’ Harry said but was cut off by Dumbledore.  

‘It is I who should apologise to you Harry.  I have kept too much from you over the years and that will change.  First and foremost, I would like to induct you into the Order.  I think that I should have allowed this last year but alas, that was yet another of my mistakes.  Your friends shall not be allowed to join until they have left school; that was their parents’ decision.  You shall be given an Order Galleon at the first meeting you attend and I shall explain its powers then.  There are other things that I would like to discuss with you but we will be seeing much more of eachother over the rest of your holidays so we will talk frequently.  I have much to tell you.  Before I let you go, Sirius’ will was found at Grimmauld Place and he asked me to have it read here so I have arranged for that tomorrow morning.  I hope that is ok with you.  You may go and spend the day with your friends.  Dobby will bring you some food if you wish and the rest of your meals will be served in the Great Hall as usual.’

Harry nodded and said goodbye to his headmaster before leaving the office.  He was struggling to take everything in.  He had just been inducted into the Order, had found out he was a seemingly skilled Legilimens and he was going to be told everything from now on.  He was in shock as he went to the Gryffindor common room to find every member of the Weasley family there, except for Percy who still wasn’t talking to them.  He was caught up in a bone-crushing hug from Mrs Weasley, followed swiftly by Hermione and then Ginny.  Ron gave Harry an odd look when he saw Harry blush at Ginny’s show of affection.  His best friend, followed by all the other Weasley brothers, nevertheless greeted him warmly.  Hermione would normally be staying with her parents but for safety, Dumbledore brought her to the castle.  

Harry spent the rest of the evening catching up with his friends and the people whom he considered to be his true family.  He found himself throwing glances in Ginny’s direction every so often when he thought no one else was watching.  What he didn’t realise was that the Weasley brothers and Hermione had all picked up on it and were waiting for Ginny to leave so they could question Harry about it.  They failed to get their chance though when Harry announced he was going to bed early saying that he was tired.  Climbing up the stairs towards his normal dormitory, Harry sighed thinking that he was finally home, even if he wasn’t sure that he wanted to be there right now.  It just didn’t seem right to be at Hogwarts when there were almost no other students around.  


	3. chapter three

Chapter 3

‘Bloody hell,’ the man said.  ‘He made more of a mess of the place than I thought.’  He looked around and shivered.  

‘Damn right.  If that boy doesn’t end this soon, then this is what the entire country will be like,’ another man said.

‘We can help him with it though.  I think we should go.  It brings back too many painful memories and I want to get on with what we have to do.  This is going to be really hard for all of us to get through,’ the first man said quietly.  The three agreed and apparated to the nearest village to their destination, knowing that they couldn’t apparate directly there.

‘Well, we’re back.  Let’s go and pay Dumbledore a little visit shall we?’ said one of the group.  The other two agreed and they all went through the gates of Hogwarts, unaware that more people than was usual were currently staying safely in the walls of the magnificent castle.

~*~

Harry awoke from his dream, unsure of where he was for a moment.  He had only had one dream that night and it involved the same three people as the last one of a similar nature.  He quickly shook it out of his mind, telling himself that his brain was simply playing tricks on him.  It was impossible for those three people to be there, no matter how much he wanted them to be there.  

He glanced around the room to see that Ron, Fred, George, Bill and Charlie were all sleeping in the dormitory with him.  He rummaged through his trunk to find some clean clothes to wear when he cut his finger on some glass.  He swore loudly before investigating the source of the glass further.  He finally came across the remains of the mirror Sirius had given him.  He vaguely remembered smashing it last year following Sirius’ death.  

With a sudden thought that made him feel nauseous, Harry remembered that Sirius’ will was going to be read that morning.  He got dressed and went to the common room to brood about his godfather.  Eventually, Fred, George, Bill and Charlie came down to the common room.  They had a mock fight on the narrow stairs to decide who would get down first, which resulted in a full-blown round of fisty-cuffs on the floor of the magnificently decorated common room.  Mrs Weasley had obviously been woken up by the noise and came into the common room to yell at them.  Ginny and Hermione followed soon after looking angry at being woken up so early but no one was as angry as Ron.  He scrambled downstairs looking murderously at his brothers.  Harry thought that even Mrs Weasley would be hard pushed to look so angry.  Ron most certainly did not take kindly to being woken up by anything in the morning, especially his brothers.  

Fred and George were rolling around on the floor by now and Bill and Charlie were struggling to contain their laughter.  Written across Ron’s t-shirt in bright pink letters was, “I, Ronald Bilius Weasley do hereby declare my undying love for Hermione Jane Granger.”  Harry too had to fight very hard to keep his emotions under control when he saw that.  Mrs Weasley’s features softened and waved her wand at he youngest son to try and remove the letters but it wouldn’t work.  Fred and George were now crying with laughter and were holding onto eachother. 

‘Come on guys, you better end that curse,’ said Harry.  He was determined to stand up for his best mate no matter how funny the situation was.  Besides, anything that would make Ron finally see sense about Hermione was fine by Harry.  They had been playing around eachother for too long in Harry’s opinion.  Fred waved his wand and the letters disappeared.  Ron smiled in thanks to Harry and went back upstairs, presumably to change before breakfast.  

Breakfast was served in the Great Hall at the solitary table in the middle of the gigantic hall.  Harry noticed that Dumbledore wasn’t there this morning but he just thought that the headmaster would be getting everything ready for the reading of Sirius’ will.

‘How are you feeling Harry?’ Lupin asked quietly.  Harry shrugged in reply, thinking that if he opened his mouth, he would be violently ill. 

‘I feel the same way, if it’s any consolation.  I’ve been through it all as well,’ the older man said.

‘I know,’ said Harry when he found his voice once more.  ‘It just makes it all so final you know?  I don’t think I’m ready to deal with the finality of it yet.’

‘When your parents were killed, I became a total recluse.  I refused to see anyone except Dumbledore and, after a few years, Snape.  Everyone thought that I had been Sirius’ accomplice in handing over your parents and they were searching for me.  It was only when Sirius testified that I did not know anything about it all that I was able to appear in public places again.  During those years, I became so depressed that not even Dumbledore could get through to me.  Before Sirius’ testimony, Dumbledore would force his way into my flat.  In the years before I allowed Snape to come along, I had to suffer the transformations without the effects of the Wolfsbane potion.  I know I sound like a self-pitying old fool but I hope it shows you that I went through it all too.  

‘I won’t patronise you by comparing our experiences because neither of us have had it easy at all but I needed you to see that.  You’re the first person I’ve ever talked to about it all,’ said Lupin.  Harry sighed loudly, and in those few seconds, he grew up mentally.  He realised that others suffered loss and sorrow as well and that it wasn’t all about him.  He looked the last Marauder in the eyes and they came to a mutual understanding of what the other had gone through in the past.  

After breakfast, Harry went upstairs with Lupin to the headmaster’s office.  Lupin looked like Harry felt – distinctly sick.  Lupin gave the password (canary crèmes) and they went up the stairs to the office.  Lupin knocked and after a moment was told to come in.  Harry was sure that he had heard Dumbledore asking someone if it was ok for them to enter the office.  Lupin appeared only to have heard the word, “enter” so he walked straight into the office.  Harry followed Lupin into the office absentmindedly so he didn’t realise Lupin had stopped dead in his tracks until he walked straight into the back of his parents’ best friend.  As Harry was about to ask what was wrong, three people came into his eyeshot; three people who when Harry saw them, he passed out.  


	4. chapter four

<u>Chapter four.</u>

 

‘Harry?  Harry for God’s sakes wake up!  Harry, Ginny is running around starkers screaming, “I want Harry, I want Harry right now!”’ came a familiar voice that Harry just couldn’t place.

 

‘Sirius!  Don’t say things like that to my son!’ a woman scolded.  Harry fought hard to regain control of his thoughts.  Had someone just said that he was their son?  Surely he must be dead if his parents were talking.  But how could he be dead after fainting?  Granted he had hit his head fairly hard on the stone floor, hard enough to knock him out, but to kill him?  Surely not.  Harry forced his eyes open and looked around.

 

‘Thank God you’re awake!’ someone shouted.  

 

‘Where am I?’ Harry asked.

 

‘Still on the floor of Dumbledore’s office son,’ said another familiar voice that Harry couldn’t place.  Harry opened his eyes further so he could see who was saying all these strange things.  What he saw made him pass out again.  Fortunately, someone caught his head before it hit the floor.  

 

When Harry came round again, he opened his eyes to find several worried faces crowded around him.  They were all talking quietly, trying and failing not to argue.  

 

‘What’s going on?’ he asked groggily as he sat up. He was now lying on a couch in the middle of Dumbledore’s office.

 

‘Oh good you’re awake,’ said Dumbledore happily.  ‘Why don’t you join us over at my desk and these people can kindly explain what happened to make them turn up here.’  Harry slowly stood up and was helped over to a chair by Lupin and someone who looked suspiciously like Sirius but he was younger and looked healthier.  The other two people were behind Harry so he couldn’t get a proper look at them to check whether his thoughts were right or not.  The group sat down and drank the tea that Dumbledore conjured while Harry ate the chocolate that Lupin gave him.

 

‘Right, which of you would care to explain?’ Dumbledore asked sternly.  He was obviously still shocked to see these three people who had been presumed dead.  

 

‘Well,’ the woman started.  ‘You know that we were killed nearly fifteen years ago by Voldemort.  We ended up behind the veil and that’s where we’ve been all these years.  We were told when we got there that we were killed before our time and that we would be allowed to come back but only when it was the right time.  We’ve spent all this time waiting and finally, when Sirius came, we were told that the time was very close.  After about a month, we were told to brace ourselves because we would shortly be summoned to the gate.  I can’t actually tell you any of what happened while we were behind the veil because they want their secrets to remain just that.  We were thrown out of the veil just yesterday and we apparated to Godric’s Hollow.  We stayed overnight before apparating to Hogsmeade.  You can probably guess the rest from there.  We came straight here, being careful to avoid being seen.  We nearly ran into Severus on the way but James remembered that there was a secret passageway just where we were standing so we hid behind that for a moment.’

 

‘I was tempted to jump out at Snivellus and scare him to death but Lily held me back,’ the man called James said.  

 

‘Would have been brilliant to see his face though,’ said the Sirius look-alike.  Harry was sitting looking at his shoes the entire time, unable to understand what was going on.  These people certainly sounded like Sirius and his parents but he had learnt from experience that things could sometimes not be exactly as they seemed.  Lupin seemed to be thinking along the same lines as he asked,

 

‘How can we be sure that you are who you say you are?’

 

‘I can do a couple of spells on them to determine whether they are telling the truth or not.  Is that acceptable to you?’ asked Dumbledore.  They all nodded and Dumbledore stood up and walked round his desk asking the entire group to stand up.  Dumbledore asked Harry to stand up too so that he could try the spell on him first to make sure it worked.  Harry agreed and stood beside the man who looked identical to Harry except for his eyes.  Dumbledore cast his spell and Harry saw a deep gold aura around himself.  Dumbledore looked satisfied and moved onto the other three.  They in turn turned a deep gold colour, similar to Harry’s.  

 

‘That spell checks for lies, deceit, use of the Imperious curse and Polyjuice Potion among other things.  I cannot be more certain that these three people standing in front of us are James and Lily Potter and Sirius Black.  Can I be the first to welcome you back?’ Dumbledore said.  His eyes were twinkling wildly as he embraced the three guests.  Harry stared at them dumbfounded for a moment until Dumbledore and then Lupin were done with their hellos before he ran into his mother’s arms.  He felt tears come into his eyes and he let them come.  His father joined the hug and Harry felt completely safe for the first time in his life that he could remember.  After about five minutes of standing like that, they broke apart and Harry gave his godfather a hug.

 

‘I see my comment about Ginny woke you up earlier,’ Sirius joked.  James snorted as did Lupin but they kept quiet after that following a sharp glare from Lily.  Harry wiped away his tears and smiled at his parents.  He didn’t think he could ever have been happier in his wildest dreams.  Of course this was his wildest dream come true.

 

‘I’m going to be able to conjure one hell of a Patronus after this!’ Harry explained.

 

‘Language!’ Lily half-scolded.

 

‘You can do a Patronus?’ asked James.  ‘We’ve been able to watch you from where we were but once we came back here we forgot everything we saw.’

 

‘Yeah Professor Lupin taught me in third year,’ Harry explained.

 

‘I think we can drop the “Professor” part now Harry.  Just call me Remus,’ said Lupin and then he turned to James, ‘He was probably one of the easiest people to work with.  He saved Sirius’ sorry arse when some Dementors caught him at the end of that year.  You’ll never guess what form his Patronus takes Prongs!’

 

‘It’s a stag,’ said Harry.

 

‘A stag eh?  Well that’s interesting.  Harry, have you ever thought about becoming an Animagus?’ asked James.

 

‘I thought about it when I found out about you lot but I haven’t done anything about it why?’ asked Harry.

 

‘James Potter don’t you dare encourage your son to become an Animagus.  I dread to think what kinds of trouble you would get into for that!’ Lily said.  

 

‘I was only going to say that he should think about it when he was of age so that he would be able to escape your wrath!’ James joked.  Lily looked ready to slap her husband when he swept her of her feet and planted a long kiss on her lips.  Sirius and Remus started teasing them while Harry looked on uncomfortably.  He was happy being uncomfortable though, if it meant his parents were alive and well.

 

‘I do believe that a party will be in order tonight!’ said Dumbledore.  Harry had forgotten that he was there while he watched his parents and their best friends mess about like they had never been apart.  ‘I shall contact certain friends and will ask the house elves to prepare a feast.  I’ll leave you all here to reacquaint yourselves.  No doubt, you will all have plenty to talk about.  Lily, there are tissues on my desk just in case.’  With that Dumbledore left them all in his office.  A comfortable silence fell over the group until Lily asked, 

 

‘Why might I need tissues?’

 

‘Suffice it to say that Harry hasn’t had the easiest time of it in the past few years,’ said Lupin carefully.  He evidently knew what to say or what not to say when it came to Lily’s temper.

 

‘What’s that supposed to mean?’ she said.  ‘Sirius you were supposed to take care of him!’

 

‘Mum, it’s got nothing to with what Sirius did or didn’t do.  When Voldemort um…killed you, I was taken to your sister’s house.’

 

‘Petunia?  Why on earth would you send him there Sirius?  And why would you let him Remus?’ Lily yelled.  James put an arm around her shoulders as a subtle way of showing that he agreed with his wife but it was also effective in calming her down.

 

‘They didn’t make the decision mum, that was Dumbledore.  And I think he had good reason.  You see because you sacrificed yourself for me, Voldemort’s curse backfired, hence the scar.  The love that is involved in that kind of sacrifice was what gave me the protection I needed to deflect the killing curse.  Voldemort was nothing more than a spirit after that but that’s a different story.  Dumbledore thought that I would be protected by the magic of the sacrifice if I was to stay with your closest living relative, which turned out to be Aunt Petunia.  I won’t sugarcoat any of it; it was hell living there.  Vernon, her husband, was cruel to me.  Seemingly they were trying their hardest to beat the magic out of me.  I think it actually made me stronger.’  Harry spent the next two hours telling his parents everything about his life, whether it was his trip to the zoo with Dudley and Piers Polkiss on Dudley’s birthday when he talked to his first snake or whether it was the horrific story of Voldemort’s return to a physical body or his first trip on the Hogwarts Express when he met Ron for the first time, he told them everything.  They all made for a good audience, laughing, gasping (or in Lily’s case, screaming) and clapping in all the right places.  

 

Harry felt good for telling them everything; it was the first time he had ever talked about everything that had happened to him in his life that involved feelings.  James and Lily had tears streaming down their cheeks and Sirius and Remus were fighting the urge to either curse Dumbledore or the Dursleys.  Lily had begun sobbing when Harry had mentioned the Prophecy, struggling to come to terms with the fact that her son had to face that monster again.  James explained that Dumbledore had told them the Prophecy shortly after it had been made and that was what had forced them into hiding.  

 

At that moment Dumbledore entered his office looking very happy.  His face fell when he saw Lily and James crying onto eachother’s shoulders and Sirius and Remus looking murderous.  Harry was looking a mixture of shell-shocked and relieved.  He guessed that Harry had just been through the long and harrowing story of his youth and he prepared himself for the barrage of insults that were no doubt on their way.  He soundlessly raised a shield just in case Lily was extremely angry.


End file.
